1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of retrieving product information, and more particularly to retrieving product information via a spatially-sensitive system including a portable display device.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
While retail stores offer the convenience of nearly instantaneous delivery, if a customer can not find what he or she is looking for, a sale may be lost. Determining whether a store carries a particular item (or class of items) and getting directions for how to find the item in the store may improve the likelihood of making a sale. Moreover, seeing an item can often tip the balance and lead to additional impulse sales.
Even if the customer can locate the item or category of a desirable product, the customer may be unsure whether to make a purchase due to cost, suitability for a particular application, confusion generated by a plethora of choices, etc. Typically, the role of a sales associate is to help the customer make an informed purchase and nudge the customer into commitment if the customer is wavering. However, hiring knowledgeable retail employees can be difficult.
Many devices exhibit forms of spatial-sensitivity, for instance, global positioning system (GPS) devices determine a user's location to within a few yards. Other examples include interfaces to virtual reality environments which determine and display a virtual position in a computer generated environment, metrology devices for creating computer models from physical artifacts, tracking devices for monitoring vehicles (e.g., Lojack®), and various traffic monitoring systems (both pedestrian and vehicular). These systems are used merely to determine a global position and lack the capability to relate multimedia information to a consumer. Further, a number of these systems may not work indoors due to weak communications channels.
Systems such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and laptop computers have the ability to perform more complex tasks. However, these devices typically have no spatial sensitivity other than for establishing a connection to resources such as a specific computer local area network (LAN) or a telephone calling area (or specific cell tower). These systems do not provide precise positional information and may lack multimedia capabilities.
Fitzmaurice's Chameleon device is an example of a system which provides information, however, it is used primarily to provide a graphical information overlay on a view of the real world, or as a window through which spatially registered images are viewed. The system is described in “Situated Information Spaces and Spatially Aware Palmtop Computers”, George W. Fitzmaurice, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 36, No. 7, pp. 39-49, July 1993.
Therefore, a need exists for a method of providing a customer personal access to multimedia information about product in real time.